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So the motto goes, “there’s always next year,” it’s seemingly always muttered from the mouths of drunk and desperate fanguys every year when their team officially goes down. It’s one of the most annoying phrases that could ever be said, yet it’s always said. As if the world is on its way to an abrupt end, and sports is the only criteria for the world to remain intact. The world can’t end, because “there’s always next year” for my beloved ___________ <—insert here, team.

Speaking of next year, not that I’m trying to rush through the Super Bowl, but I’m already thinking about next year. What could possibly happen next year? Let’s get after 20 possibilities that aren’t necessarily predictions, but loose ideas, thoughts, hopes and dreams for your team and the NFL in 2012.

20.) There will be at least two surprising teams, one from each conference. This year it was the 49ers, Broncos and Bengals. I had both San Francisco and Cincy winning a combined 8 games. And little did I know as the Niners were a Kyle Williams goof away from Super Bowl XLVI and Andy Dalton was better than advertised in his rookie season leading the Natti to a 9-7 Wildcard team. Next year, who could it be? Carolina? Miami? St. Louis? Oakland?

19.) Will Atlanta finally live up to their “potential” and win a playoff game or are the Falcons just consumed by false hopes and hype? Sooner or later, a teams’ time always comes to an end. Atlanta is dangerously flirting with irrelevance if they can’t break through. New Orleans isn’t going anywhere. And Carolina is only going to get better.

18.) The Philadelphia Eagles will be the team in 2012, they were supposed to be 2011. The Eagles kind of proved they have a wealth of talent after they finished strong at 8-8 after a miserable all-around season. If Mike Vick stays healthy, the Eagles are going deep.

17.) Peyton Manning will be somewhere other than Indianapolis. The question is where? Miami has expressed interest with the arrival of new head coach Joe Philbin, former Packers OC. You know the Redskins will think about Manning contingent on if they want “veteran leadership” or if they want to start fresh and draft a quarterback (Trade up for RG3 in the draft). It could be the Jets, and Arizona has also been rumored to be interested.

16.) Can the Lions have staying power, or was 2011 a one-year thing. Matt Stafford put up 5,000 yards and the Lions offense flourished, with Jahvid Best going down mid-season. And how many fines will Ndamukong Suh collect in 2012?

15.) Mike Shanahan will be fired if the Redskins don’t make the playoffs in 2012. Washington is extremely talented defensively, but they desperately need a quarterback. The best of Grossman AND Beck combined together, is still one of the worst QB’s in the league. They can’t and aren’t going to get the job done.

14.) There is no reason the San Diego Chargers shouldn’t win the AFC West. Norv Turner was awarded one more as head coach, and if not successful, he’s certain to be fired. Phillip Rivers had a down season. He missed Darren Sproles, who they should’ve never let go, and the offensive game-plans suffered setbacks throughout. Hey Norv, the homerun shot deep ball doesn’t always work.

13.) Mark Sanchez and Rex Ryan are on short leashes. The Jets franchise as a whole, is another 8-8 season away from cleaning house. Rex Ryan has to learn to shut-up. The guarantees don’t always work, especially if the guarantees are always exactly the same. It’s not sending your team a message. In fact, it’s really only bringing them down. Think of the pressure you’re contributing. And Sanchez has to wake up, or he’s finished. Which, he might already be, depending on where Peyton Manning travels.

12.) How will Jeff Fisher affect the St. Louis Rams as their new head coach? Fisher was the hottest coach on the market, and for what reasons? In his tenure at Tennessee, Fisher had 6-winning seasons and 6-losing seasons, but he was a foot from winning the Super Bowl via Kevin Dyson’s reach.

11.) How many, if any, quarterbacks will throw over 5,000 yards? This year it was Stafford, Brees and Brady – with the latter two breaking Marino’s 26-year old single-season passing record. In a quarterback/receiver driven league, we could be seeing just the beginning of 5,000 yards as the new 4,000 yards.

10.) The Houston Texans finally broke through for their first franchise playoff appearance and win under rookie QB T.J. Yates. How far could they have went if Matt Schaub never got hurt? What’s the pinnacle for the Texans? How much better can they get? In my opinion, they aren’t going anywhere for a long, long time.

9.) The Buffalo Bills started off hot and then turned into ‘not.’ Nobody circles the wagons better than the Bills, and nobody ever will. Only the Bills could start off 5-2 and finish with a record of 6-10. Not even Minnesota, St. Louis or Indianapolis would’ve done that if they started 5-2, and they were all 2-14. Buffalo just doesn’t like winning. Once they start winning, they’re incapable of keeping the momentum. It’s like they’re scared of success. But that’s all part of the culture of being lousy.

8.) Will anyone challenge San Francisco from the NFC West? If Arizona can improve on the road, they have a chance. In 2011 the Cards went 6-2 at home and 2-6 on the road. I don’t know if they’re anywhere close to the defense the 49ers have, but they have some talent on the other side of the ball. Kevin Kolb has to stay healthy and improve. 3-6 as a starter is not what the Cardinals handsomely paid him for.

7.) As long as Jerry Jones is alive and kicking, and GM of the Cowboys, Dallas is never going to win anything. Which will be the story for 2012. The term ‘there’s always next year’ doesn’t apply to Dallas. Because ‘next year’ simply means another year just like the one before. However, no one can smack talk Tony Romo. He sacked up through bruised ribs and a punctured lung with an immature Dez Bryant and injury hampered Miles Austin, to have his personal best season and solidify himself as a top 8 QB in the league.

6.) The Baltimore Ravens are closing in on losing their chance. If they were ever going to compete for a Super Bowl, it was this year, not 2012. The defense is getting older. Ray Lewis will be in his 17th year if he doesn’t retire. And Baltimore is eventually going to be forced to make a business decision about Lewis because he’s ultimately taking up a roster spot and you have to think his production will decline.

5.) How will Green Bay bounce back? I thought the Packers were flawed going into the 2011 playoffs and I’m proud to say I was right. They’re a finesse team that pretends to be hard because they’re in cold ass Green Bay. The gift is also their curse because the success in the great offense becomes limited against a tough defense and brutal weather conditions. Green Bay must get better defensively and find a viable running-back, or just do what they did in 2010 and excel through the playoffs as an underdog.

4.) Tim Tebow? It’s still a question that remains to be answered. He will start in 2012, but he has to improve with basic quarterback skills. 2011 was fun, exciting and amazing, but wins from one year don’t factor into the next.

3.) The Chicago Bears will be very dangerous. If Cutler stays healthy, and they franchise-tag/commit to Matt Forte like they should – watch out for this Chicago team. Jay Cutler is close to being one of the league’s “elite” quarterbacks. Before he went down the Bears were 7-3 and I think they would’ve made a run and ousted Detroit for a postseason berth. Do the right thing Chicago and sign Forte long-term.

2.) You might want to go ahead and start saying there’s always next year, already – Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Seattle, St. Louis, Minnesota, Washington, NY Jets, Denver, Oakland, Buffalo and Jacksonville – I don’t see any of these teams going anywhere. Why? They don’t have security at the quarterback position. I’m not ready to anoint Andrew Luck taking the Colts to the playoffs because the entire team is bad. If Peyton was healthy this year, the Colts still wouldn’t have won 8 games. Not to forget, the Colts will have a new coach in place with a new GM.

1.) Who is the favorite in 2012? How about everyone except the teams I listed in the above paragraph? Out of the 32 teams, I can see 20 teams fighting for 12 playoff positions. I can see Green Bay, New Orleans, New England, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and NY Giants maintaining competitive teams. I don’t see San Francisco or Houston going anywhere. I like Philadelphia, Miami, Dallas, Atlanta, Cincinnati, San Diego, Chicago, Detroit and Tennessee all in the Wildcard hunt. Arizona, Carolina and Kansas City could also be surprisingly dangerous. The great thing is, the NFL is impossible to predict. But one thing is for sure, one one team will ever win, and everyone else will be stuck saying, “There’s always next year.”

At the beginning of the 2011 season, who thought these two teams would be competing for a chance to play in Super Bowl XLVI?

Not you, not me, not the “experts” who are paid a lot of money to recite the same exact thoughts every day i.e. -> (Green Bay, Green Bay, Green Bay with a sprinkle of New Orleans).

I did say ‘not me’ by the way. But then again, I don’t claim to be an expert. I’m just a fan like you, without the fanguy character flaws and lack of perspective.

“The Giants have key ingredients at all the skill positions and on no planet should this team not be in the playoff race in a very competitive NFC East. Great one-two punch at running-back, fast receivers and a very good O-Line keeps NY alive offensively. And defensively they just need to come together with more production from the starting linebackers because their line is always going to get after quarterbacks.
New York Giants 9-7″ – This was prediction for the Giants written before kickoff weekend. You can find it on the NFC East page under NFL Now.

As for San Francisco, I pegged them as a 4-12 to 6-10 team that would be building for a strong 2012 season. I liked Arizona or St. Louis to come out of the NFC West and goddamn was I wrong.

The NFC Championship game provides historical implications since some twenty-five years later from what could arguably be considered the “heyday” of American football. The Giants and 49ers is a “classic” “rivalry.” I don’t like the word classic and/or rivalry but this game is exactly that. By now you should know me well-enough to know that I am a proponent of the ‘here and now.’ I don’t spend a lot of time sorting out the past vs. present and finding myself stuck in the “glory days.” But this is an exception.

Today, just like 15-25 years ago, there are some very good quarterbacks and there’s some very average guys pretending to be quarterbacks. And there’s also some very good players all around the league. There is an undeniable and amazing wealth of talent that’s allowing and helping the NFL to prosper, but there is no Jerry Rice, who is probably the greatest to ever play. There is no Joe Montana. There is no Lawrence Taylor. There is no Bill Walsh and Bill Parcels. It’s a new breed of guys vying for glory. You substitute Eli in for Simms, Jacobs and Bradshaw are the new Morris and Anderson duo and although LT can never be substituted for anyone – Pierre-Paul works for the sake of the idea.

Again, for the sake of the idea, we’ll substitute Alex Smith in for Montana even though that’s a cruel joke and it could only work for hopeless romantic 49ers fans. Frank Gore for Roger Craig and the entire collection of receivers from both teams for Rice and John Taylor. And the offenses are ready to go.

I’m not satisfied with the offensive substitutions but it’s time to shift to the defensive side of the ball. In 1989 and ’90, both the Niners and Giants had top 5 defenses. And San Francisco maintained a top 5 defense from ’87-90 whereas the Giants were really good in ’85 and ’86. This year the 49ers had the 4th best regular season defense and the Giants currently have the 4th best defense in the playoffs. The Giants were 27th defensively during the regular season, but those numbers are flawed from giving up a ton of points in just about every game except the final two. It’s cliche, but there is something to be said about playing your best football at the end of the season and into the playoffs. The Giants defense is doing exactly that.

And then there’s the setting. The backdrop, the one and only Candlestick Park. There is nothing more beautiful than the shadow of the sun hovering over Canldestick on a late Sunday afternoon. Just the site brings me back to my childhood. All of my friends would be outside playing hide-and-seek or whatever and I was watching the 49ers and Montana.

That’s what this game brings, historical connotations between two unsuspecting teams against all the other preseason favorites. It’s a reminder of parity in the NFL. That a team like San Francisco can be terrible one season and have a chance at the ultimate prize the next. And for the Giants it’s a chance to remind people about resilience, if they haven’t already. The Giants were dead to rights with two weeks left in the season, and now they’re 60 minutes away from quieting the critics. And no one deserves to quiet them more than Eli Manning, who could eclipse his brother in championships won. And what about Tom Coughlin, who was on the brink of getting canned if the Giants didn’t make the playoffs?

It’s about perseverance and redemption for Alex Smith. The guy has already persevered through massive criticism from not holding up to the hype of his #1 draft pick in 2005. Smith was drafted over Aaron Rodgers, and many have been ready and already have anointed him as a “bust.” And now he’s playing at his highest level as a starting quarterback and he also has a chance to quiet the critics.

Whoever wins the game, it’s a great story. And whoever loses, it was a great story.

The 49ers are -2.5 favorite. I like San Francisco to barely cover. 23-20.

by Brandon Halsey
brandonhalsey@gettinAfterIt.com

The setting is somewhere in Massachusetts. Somewhere in-between Boston and Foxboro to be exact, a small bar that will remain nameless, not because of confidentiality, but because there actually isn’t such a thing. Just to keep it simple, it’s a dark basement bar on a street just like every other street. You walk the sidewalk until you see a difference in the lay of the land and the architecture highlighted from the dim light of the late-night street lamp. You walk down a series of 8 steps that finds yourself forced into a creaky door that sits to the right. The door is slightly ajar. And just as you’re about to push through the door, the musty smoke and the loud music and meaningless conversations present you with a comfortable welcome. It’s a bit like Cheers because everyone knows each other but this place is different. There’s no Norm to speak of and Ted Danson’s forehead doesn’t encapsulate the bar. And the waitresses are halfway covered in Patriots jerseys. I say halfway because the bar owner knows that sex appeal brings in the business. TV’s surround the bar inside and out and mixed in with the vintage pictures, autographed posters and sports memorabilia are larger TV’s on the walls. The faces all blend together as you part ways with the outside cold. As you work your way closer to the bar you overhear the patrons immediately to your right. Knowing that what they said is sure to be untrue you look around like your head is on a swivel and there they are chatting it up. By themselves they sit in a booth with a couple of pints and the patrons keep a soft distance knowing the magnitude of the circumstances that await. The most unsuspecting pairing you thought you’d ever see. Underneath the green-covered dim light of the booth table and below the cliche neon sign sits Tom Brady and Joe Flacco trading words.

Should you buy them a drink you wonder? And then you quickly dismiss that idea as being overly forward and insensitive. You wish you could somehow forget that it’s really them but you have to play it cool and keep the distance just as everyone else is doing. You just wonder, you can’t stop thinking about what that conversation must be like. You wish you could be that fly on the wall.

“Do you know how many Super Bowl rings I have with less talent?” Brady gratifyingly asks Flacco.
“I hope you know that my defense is going to bail me out once again,” Flacco responds after a few seconds of thought. “You aren’t going to be able to escape Ball So Hard University.”
Brady then quickly mumbles with a slight grin as he’s about to take a sip, “Does your wife really kiss you with that god-awful excuse of a mustache?”
“It’s a crowbar. It’s my playoff stache and you know what, you know you’re a real asshole Tom, what did I ever do to you?” cries Flacco.
“You give my position a bad name Joe,” Tom replies loud and clear looking Flacco directly in the eyes. “I do nothing but work my ass off with a bunch of white guys who wouldn’t be 3rd stringers on any other team. You have Boldin, Torrey Smith and Ray Rice as weapons. I have Gonk and Wesley…. Jesus man, I mean, did you see what Wes was before he came to New England? He caught a combined 96 passes in three years in Miami. If I had your cast of guys and that defense I would never lose. Don’t you get that?”
“You’re really going to be that like Tom? What about Tebow, you can’t say I’m any worse than Tebow?”
“Ugh, Joe, did you see what we did to Tebow last week?”
“C’mon Brady, you have Belichick.”
“Yeah, but you’ve been to the playoffs every season since you’ve been a starter, you aren’t exactly playing for a terrible teams yet the jury’s still not out. No one is convinced about you Joe and especially not me.”
“Look, I really can’t help it. I’m tall and people have given me a pass because of my height. I mean, you know how it is. People give you a pass because you’re Tom Brady and you bang super-models and throw touchdowns.”
“Yeah Joe, that’s because I, keywords, throw touchdowns. What has it ever mattered who I am sleeping with? At least I got around. You’ve been with the same girl for nine years, didn’t you ever get tired of the same old…..you know?” Brady hesitatingly asks Flacco.

Brady then looks around the room, then looks down at his watch and back up and around the room again. “I gotta go man, but real quick. Do you see that girl over there Joe? The one in the ruffled yellow-ish dress, holding a Bud Light by the expo?”
“Yes, and your point,” Flacco regrettably replies.
“Well, I’m going to prove to you why I’m so good at what I do. I am going to take that girl home, because that’s what a quarterback is supposed to do. And if I wasn’t as good as I am, I wouldn’t be able to do such a thing,” Brady said as he smiled and threw down twenty-five dollars and left Flacco with a half empty beer sitting by himself. That girl quickly vanished.

The spread dropped from 9 to 7 points since Monday morning, still in favor of the New England Patriots. Baltimore has the defense to give New England problems. Baltimore has the skill players to give New England problems. But Baltimore doesn’t have the quarterback that will give New England problems. After all is be said and done and the season is finished. You shouldn’t be surprised if Tom Brady is holding the Lombardi Trophy. After all the talk of Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Tim Tebow, Tom Brady still works as hard if not harder than he ever has in his career. Tom Brady is playing at another level. And though you might see this unconventional prose as completely in the favor of Brady, it’s also meant as an appreciation and serve as a reminder that you can’t forget about him. The difference in this game is Tom Brady. Sure, the Ravens can barely win against a 3rd string rookie quarterback, and may I stress the word ‘barely.’ Baltimore +7 is not going to happen. You want to believe that “defense wins championships” go ahead and drink the delusional Kool-Aid. Baltimore is the most overrated 12-4, 2nd seed playoff team in the history of the NFL. Jacoby Jones doesn’t muck a punt return and Houston wins. And lastly, and almost equally important as the greatness that is Tom Brady is the question mark that is Joe Flacco who can’t pick up the girl at the bar, and he won’t be able to pick up the win in Foxboro.

The purpose of the fictional dialogue of the absurd is to serve and provide you with imagination. In no way did this conversation actually take place.

In the end, it was arrogance that did the Packers in. Everything from an on-side kick to going for it on 4th downs against “inferior” talent when already winning by a lot to deactivating Aaron Rodgers in week 17 to the “discount double check” commercials exonerating the cockiness of Rodgers’ touchdown celebration with an imaginary heavyweight champion wrestling belt. Karma is a bitch, and that great 15-1 regular season the Packers just had, is now completely meaningless and it couldn’t have happened to a better bunch of douchebags.

In the face of adversity, on the road not only against the Packers, but also the referees, the Giants knocked off the team that every “expert” and “analyst” deemed to be unbeatable. That Kansas City only won because of a “fluke.” And the evil 4-letter word just hates it. Vegas lost a lot of money this weekend because they bought into the Packers arrogance as “confidence” and gave them -8 point favorites. Shame on Vegas, but good for me. The wise guys should’ve know better. Anyone with half a brain, who’s not an idiot fanguy should’ve known to take the Giants +8.

The problem with Green Bay is they were better last year as the underdog. They’re not as good when they are the favorites. They were clearly missing that fight they had from the 2010/11 season. Being the best comes with a lot of responsibility. 15-1 with home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with the quarterback you adamantly said is the MVP, there shouldn’t have been a single problem. Obviously Aaron is better than Eli right? Eli is just a bum with bad body language and there’s absolutely no chance he can get the Giants a win at Lambeau Field. The Giants were the better team and they deserved that win. It would’ve been a damn shame if the NFL, the refs and evil 4-letter got their way and the Packers would’ve won.

Sometimes I think you just assume the game doesn’t need to be played. You have a serious problem, you watch entirely to much ESPN. Somewhere along the lines you forgot how to think for yourselves. You’ve been force-fed Aaron Rodgers and the Packers all season long and you bought into it. You already want to claim Rodgers as Hall of Fame worthy when the striking reality is Eli is just as good. And Eli stands a really good chance at competing in his 2nd Super Bowl. You are so surprised the Packers lost because you’ve been desensitized by “experts” with agendas. The same “experts” who say Tim Tebow is a joke, Romo sucks and Flacco is good. When all Tebow does is win, Romo just had the 4th best season of any quarterback in the league and people are disillusioned to Flacco’s greatness only because he’s tall.

Two of the most annoying fan bases square off Sunday afternoon in Lambeau for what should be a classic slug-fest. If only the game was one colossal fight between both of the fan bases and the players of the teams could cheer on the fans? Is what you would do is, you drop around 10,000 fans of each team into the vastness of the desert or some huge field in Kansas. And then you supply them with whiskey, weapons and crank so they can be properly equipped and ready for action. The only thing is, all of the weapons and whiskey will be perfectly located in the middle of the both parties with landmines scattered before and all around. Instead of Goodyear, the blimp will be appropriately sponsored by Summer’s Eve as a metaphorical beacon to describe who they really are, douchebags. But chances are, they won’t get the joke. The team who wins, will win the game. Of course the object would be for the fans of “Team A” to exterminate the fans of “Team B.”

Except for Todd who’ll be burning it down on Broad Street in Richmond, and Jeff who’s my new mentor, I’ve never met a reasonable Giants fan. Maybe it’s the culture of NY. It’s the biggest media market vs. expectations and rabid northerners against a town the equivalent to the size of six casinos on the Vegas strip. Giants fans are unreasonable because they treat their players like crap. Eli Manning could have a Brees-like season and have one bad game and they would focus only on that one bad game. There’s no appreciation with New York fans, and that goes for every sport. The goddamn Yankees could win the World Series ten years in a row and it wouldn’t mean anything if they didn’t win it for the eleventh time.

Green Bay without the Packers wouldn’t be much to speak of. The problem with Green Bay fans vs. other fans, is at least other fans have migrated from those places. Not one Green Bay fan I know or that I have met has ever been remotely close to Wisconsin. And it’s not like Green Bay fans have migrated throughout the country. Steelers fans are everywhere. Pittsburgh’s industry shut down in the 70′s which forced families to move everywhere around the country for better jobs. Now you have Steelers’ fan-clubs and sports bars in every goddamn city in the United States.

And no one goes to Green Bay just to go. No one says, “I want to pay a lot of money to go to Lambeau in December and freeze my ass off for 5 hours.” At least there’s other things to do in EVERY single other city that hosts an NFL team. The Jaguars suck but Jacksonville has warm weather, pretty girls and golf courses with actual grass. If you try to play golf in Green Bay you’ll probably break your sandwedge from the fairway. If you go to Green Bay, it’s exclusively for football purposes. There’s not exactly a wealth of beaches, strip-clubs, bars and crack houses to hang out at. Although there is an Indian casino, but there are no hookers and what good is gambling without the sleaze?

As for the actual game, the Giants will win. Because the Giants are tougher. The Giants are the gritty in your face guys who know how to get after the quarterback. And with that front-4, I don’t doubt for a minute they will disrupt Aaron Rodgers. The Giants will win because their fans won the fight. Packers fans were blessed with an easy-pass this season because Rodgers was so awesome. Giants fans had to fight all season long. Giants fans had to deal with having to win each of the last two weeks to get into the playoffs. Packers fans cried after they lost to Kansas City for Christ’s sake. Stop with the entitlement Packers fan. Go back to your snow shovels triple-coated in the blizzard and hope that Green Bay doesn’t lay a gigantic egg.

No disrespect to Green Bay is intended by the way. I do understand they are the “superior” team. 15-1 is 15-1 and there’s no denying they are a great team. But the fans are ridiculous.

New York isn’t supposed to win. “Eli isn’t as good as Aaron,” yet they both have 1 Super Bowl ring. Did you forget that “experts?” Eli just had the best season of his career. He might be a goofy looking guy who pouts a lot, but the guy can sling a football. In all reality, Eli has as good a chance to win his 2nd ring as Aaron does. If the G-Men beat Green Bay, the Giants will probably be playing in Super Bowl XLVI. No disrespect to San Francisco, but the Giants can beat them in Candlestick. Not to mention, wouldn’t that be one hell of a great throwback game? There’s nothing more beautiful in football than the afternoon shadow over Candlestick Park, and add the NFC Championship factor with NY Giants playing host. Talk about a throwback game.

Here’s the lock, go ahead and place your wagers: Giants cover +8 in Lambeau. Which means, the Giants have a better chance at covering 8 points than Green Bay does at winning by 8 or more.